


Floaty

by Missy



Category: Jack of All Trades (TV)
Genre: Boats and Ships, Flirting, Gen, Gossip, Humor, Rumors
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-25
Updated: 2010-12-25
Packaged: 2017-10-14 02:37:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/144420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Missy/pseuds/Missy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rumors spring up when Jack purchases a rowboat for a mysterious reason.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Floaty

**Author's Note:**

> Written for schmoop_bingo: Prompt: "Boat Ride"

It had taken him nearly a lifetime to save enough money for the damn thing and, on top of that, no one in Pulau Pulau believed that he was trying to obtain it for a legitimate reason. Everyone in the little island nation had a boat, to be sure, but none of them had even considered the notion of a rowboat being necessary to island life - especially a good old-fashioned American vessel, the kind used for fishing. If you left, you left in a big ship, and you could fish by the shore. Much less that Jack Stiles would ask them for one such object out of the blue one day.

Intriguingly, he refused to say exactly WHY he wanted such a vessel. Gossip held that he planned on doing something obscene with the Mercuric twins in the midship of it, but none could prove the veracity of such ideas. Jack himself said nothing, simply choosing to find a craftsman willing to make the boat for him and then mutely pay the man what he owed.

Yes, all of his reasons were being kept close to the vest. And Emilia was determined to find out what in the world was going on in his brain.

***

"What's up, Em?" Jack was sacked out on her couch, reading the latest newspaper in his stocking feet.

"Oh Jack," she complained, without the usual note of fondness in her tone of voice, "must you place your feet on every piece of furniture I own?"

"Hey, how else are we gonna know they're ours?"

Emilia gave him a disgusted look and he took his feet off the arm of the chair. Stiffnecked woman! He sat up with a grunt. "So what's going on?"

She crossed her hands primly before her stomach. "there have been rumors going around the island about your plans for the afternoon..."

"Those aren't true," he declared. "Maybe I saw those triplets, but the whole Siamese twin thing is pushing it."

"Jack!" she scolded. "I understand your love of the fairer sex...."

"Lady, your sex is anything but fair..."

"...but," Emilia continued crisply, "if you're planning to have sex in the middle of the lake with a couple of twins, I would appreciate your wearing a mask. Preferably not the Dragoon's."

His brow furrowed. "...What?"

"You haven't heard?" she gawked. "Apparently, you're supposed to have...indelicate relations with the Mercuric twins in the middle of the ocean." Jack stared at her for two long seconds before letting loose with a whoop. "Jack!" she scolded.

"A girl with a scientific mind like yours can't figure out a baloney story like that?"

"Well," Emilia said stiffly, "One never knows with you, Jack," she points out.

"Yeah, after you've hung upside-down from a chandelier it's pretty easy to buy anything they say about you," he pointed out.

Emilia tilted her head and asked, "but then...why ARE you having a boat made?"

Jack smirked. "That's a surprise, Em, and one I'm not gonna let you in on yet."

"Oh, come now Jack. MUST you be childish?"

"Nah, I just choose to be." He smirked obnoxiously at her while he

"Does it have something to do with the Emperor?" he said nothing. "Jack, I swear if you're doing something without me..."

"I promise, Em - it's the kinda surprise every woman wishes she could get."

"You mean you're taking a vow of silence?" she teased.

"Aww, Em," he snorted. "You break my heart."

She sighed, turning back toward the fireplace. "If you do something outrageous in front of the Emperor, do have the decency to warn me. He may be an insane former despot, but he's important to our mission."

"Fair enough."

His fecklessness would disturb her, if he wasn't Jack.

***

It's the middle of the spring when that thing is finally ready, and Jack has a couple of the guys on Emilia's ship sneak the thing out into the water. By that time she's positively bursting with curiosity, all of it misdirected by the gossip piled up around him.

He clamps his hands over her eyes as he leads her down to the shoreline. "Okay, Em, keep 'em closed."

"That's not what you usually say to a woman, is it, Jack?" she said sarcastically.

"Ha ha," he replied. "Just let me get this..." he untied the prow with his free hand. "Okay," his other dropped away from Emilia's eyes.

She blinked at the sight before her. Then she squinted at the inscription. 'The Emilia Joanne'. He was grinning by the time she turned around, a look of confused disbelief on her face. "Jack, you bought me a rowboat?"

"US a rowboat," he corrected, shoving his hands in his pants.

"I'm almost afraid to ask this but...WHY did you buy me a rowboat?"

He shoved a hand in his pocket. "Well, why not? Thought you'd want something for the lake Napoleon had put in the back of his new spread. Can't take out the mothership for something like that."

She looked up at her huge shipping scow and then back down at the boat. A smile tilted her lips.

"Would you like to take her out on her maiden voyage?"

He grinned lazily. "Honey, I've got the time if you've got it."

Emilia slipped a hand into Jack's grip. "If you'll row, Mister Stiles," she said.

"Figured you wouldn't wanna get your pinkies all shrimpy." He helped her into the boat before untying it from the mooring.

She sighed at him. "Don't be impossible now, Jack, we're having such a fine time." Primly, she settled down in the shell of it. "Shall we cast off?"

"Yes, we shall," Jack mocked fondly. And as he did, Emilia relaxed against the prow of the boat, feeling rather like a queen. "Where shall we set off to."

"How about wherever the wind takes us?" Jack suggested.

"I'd prefer somewhere more definite," Emilia said.

"Then once around?" He took the paddles and began to stroke.

"Yes, once around, and Jack?" He rose a row and stared at her. "Thank you."

With an answering grin, he shoved off and began rowing them into the sunset.


End file.
